Humidor upsets Hartnell in G1 Makybe Diva

Saturday 16 September 2017, 4:25pm

Damian Lane has bounced back from a fall to claim a Group race double at Flemington including the Group One Makybe Diva Stakes on Humidor.

Lane and his mount Limestone escaped injury when falling in the final stages of Saturday's Danehill Stakes before the jockey came out to win the Let's Elope Stakes and Makybe Diva Stakes in consecutive races.

Coming from the tail of the field, Humidor ($17) scored by 3-1/4 lengths from the $1.70 favourite Hartnell with Black Heart Bart ($8.50) a half-length away third.

Lane thought his day may have been over when he crashed with Limestone.

"For a few moments there I thought I'd definitely at least be missing the rest of the day," Lane said.

"But I gave it five or 10 minutes and I felt good to go.

"I'm lucky to have escaped with no injury."

A winner of the Australian Cup at Flemington in the autumn, Humidor firmed to $5 favourite for the Caulfield Cup after Saturday's win and into $13 second favourite for the Melbourne Cup.

Lane described Humidor as a great talent who is starting to put it all together.

"He lobbed along out the back and he travelled up underneath me turning for home," Lane said.

"I thought I was the winner a long way out.

"He's come such a long way since he came into the stable."

Trainer Darren Weir said the New Zealand-bred five-year-old was tracking well towards his spring target of next month's Caulfield Cup.

He said the gelding was likely to head to the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on October 7.

"He's always promised to do that but it's been a matter of getting him right and the team have worked hard trying to get his manners better," Weir said.

"It's clear at his last two starts that it's working.

"He's paraded a lot better and Damian's done a lot of the hard yards going to Casterton and Coleraine doing all his trackwork."

After winning the PB Lawrence Stakes at Caulfield last month, Hartnell was expected to add Saturday's Group One race to his record.

After enjoying a good run behind the leader, jockey Kerrin McEvoy expected a better finish from the gelding.

"He finished off OK but the winner showed more dash than me there today," McEvoy said.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »